Devil May Have Vengeance
by legendslayer222
Summary: Mallet Island, which was sunk, is back. Dante and Trish go to investigate, and meet a guy called Clinton. The story is better than the sumary I hope!
1. Introduction

_The characters and creatures etc. are owned by capcom. Well, most of 'em, some I made._

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Dante was sitting in _Devils never cry_, his shop. The day had been slow business, so he thought he'd sit back and relax. He was practically falling asleep when the door opened, but the bell on it woke him. Dante glanced over at the clock, but it was not late enough in the evening to tell them he was closed and the guy should hit the road.

So instead he drowsily looked over at the guy and said "Can I help you?"

The Bloody Mari he was addressing drew its daggers and launched them at Dante's desk. He rolled away just in time, but his jacket was slashed. Dante got out his signature weapons, Ebony and Ivory, and shot away at the blood stained puppet. It fell to the floor resembling rags and bits of old firewood.

"What's happening?" Trish shouted, running into the room with the Sparda sword in her hands. A quick look at the room shown Dante battle ready and bits of what looked like smashed wood and ragged cloth on the floor.

"One of Mundus' old marionettes." Dante sighed. "I thought they all lost the spirits possessing them when I defeated their leader. But it's over now anyway."

Simultaneously, all the windows in the room smashed, and possessed puppets pulled themselves through the openings. Dante opened fire on the left side of the room, four puppets falling almost instantly, only to stand up again. Trish was on the right side of the room, and she also turned out to have the right idea. The Sparda sword was devastating, especially to the pathetic marionettes. They were the weakest creature in Mundus' arsenal, Dante remembered. It felt like only yesterday he was on Mallet Island fighting these things and worse.

But now the fighting was over, the last puppet attempting to crawl back out of the window but being demolished by Sparda.

"Where did they come from?" Trish asked.

"I don't know." Dante replied, slowly and thoughtfully.


	2. Chapter 1

_I hope you read the intro before this!!!_

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"I'm not gonna' rest until I found out about that attack." Dante said.

"Could you ask that friend of yours, Lady?" Trish said. "She might know."

"No." Dante replied firmly. "We came to a… Small disagreement on our last meeting."

"What was the disagreement?" Trish asked curiously.

Dante didn't reply to that question, but did say "She's not a friend, she's an acquaintance."

Dante, who was pacing up and down the room, stood on one on the bit's of a marionette. He cursed under is breath, and turned to Trish. "Mallet Island would be a sensible place to look, but it fell down."

"Maybe not entirely…" Trish said, running to the laptop on the desk. She was lucky it was still working, as there was a marionette dagger wedged into the side.

After a minute, she said "Here we are, FlightDisasters. A private jet went missing in the area where the Island used to be."

Trish and Dante got into the small red plane they had appropriated from the Island when they escaped its destruction. As they were flying over the space that had been a plume of fire and smoke when they last saw it, but now should have been a blank space of water, they saw an Island. Mallet Island!

"Hell, that place should be long gone…" Dante muttered under his breath, and flew the plane down. Instead of touching down outside, he touched down in the room when he had first found the plane he was currently flying in. The room, which he had grown to call the plane room, should have been gone. The floor had collapsed. But, ruined as it was, the room was now intact. Dante jumped down from the plane, and helped Trish get out of the back seat.

Looking around, Dante found a shard from a blue orb, which he knew would come in useful. "Three more of these shards and my life expectancy will grow." Dante commented. He drew Alastor, and gave it a test swing at a suit of armour. It shattered on impact, sending a spray of metal and red orbs everywhere.

"Time to go on." Dante said, walking over to the door that should lead to the entrance room, where the statue of Mundus once was. As soon as Dante approached the door, a large spectral hand came out of it. "Locked." Dante said, the door hands being something he was used to by now.

Dante went to an alcove in the wall with a lift and a rune clock. He activated the rune clock and went down into a dungeon like chamber. It had three iron doors coming off of it, which opened to reveal swarms of marionettes. Dante mercilessly smashed them, and went to the plane room again. Trish was fighting off some more attacking marionettes. When they were all beaten, the hand inside the door shattered. Dante and Trish fought their way past the marionettes in the next rooms to the main hall. It was neatly decorated, with a large staircase and a statue of a knight, along with multiple balconies. Two things spoilt the room's beauty. One was the way this room was a wrecked version of its former self, like the plane room was, the other thing spoiling the scenery was the smouldering private jet lodged on one of the upper balconies.

As Trish and Dante went up to it cautiously, Dante asked "By the way, how did you find a website called 'FlightDisasters'?"

The jet was leaning over the edge, because even though it was a small jet, it was wider than the balcony. Dante clambered up onto the side of the plane with its wing jammed into the wall, because that side looked safer.

"I'll stay out here and keep a lookout for trouble." Trish said. Dante first went to the cabin, where he found the pilot and the waitress dead in the cabin. They were reduced to skeletons, and who knew what carrion hunting creatures now scoured the hallways of this castle. In the back of the plane, Dante found someone alive.

He looked like a rich man, with dashing (but now slightly dishevelled) hair, and a smart (if not a bit ripped now) suit. He had a Glock 35 in his hands, and was covered in blood. The luggage rack had fell and was crushing his legs, stopping him from moving.

"Hello." He said mildly. "I'm Sir Clinton Westford, and was on my way to a sporting competition--" He waved the Glock "--When we were hit with this flash of light. An island appeared in front of us, and the pilot was stunned by the light, so we crashed. I've been stuck here and only eaten that mangy hybrid _(I'll tell you it was actually a Nobody)_ in days. Damn good luck I had my Glock in my suitcase, which was on the luggage rack that fell on me. I could kill that thing that devoured the pilot." Clinton, who had been talking deliriously- probably from lack of food- Finally realised he had no idea who he was talking to. "I assume you're here to help me and not eat me, it's just you looked like a human."

"Trust me; I'm not really a human." Dante said, "But I won't eat you. Not my style." And with Dante and Clinton's strength combined they freed Clinton's legs from under the rack. Dante gave Clinton a small loaf of bread to cure his hunger, and a vital star to cure his broken legs. When they were done they went out of the plane.

"Trish, Clinton. Clinton, Trish." Dante said. Three Nobodies were on the opposite side of the room suddenly, growling and snarling. "I have a secret weapon!" Dante warned. The Nobodies ran across the main room. Dante got in between the jet and the wall, and pushed the already precarious jet off the balcony. It crushed the three Nobodies beneath it.

"Anyway." Dante said. "I still need to know who and for what cause did this Island come back into existence."


	3. Chapter 2

_The chapters may be quite short, but this story isn't going that badly… Or is it?? Uh… I have no faith in my own story writing skills… Besides, I was writing chapter 2! Here it goes!..._

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Dante, Trish and Clinton made their way back to 'the long corridor'. Marionettes clogged the path, but it turned out Clinton was quite a soldier.

"My only gun experience is shooting competitions, and I've only ever got bronze." He said modestly and shrugged. "I surprise myself."

Eventually they got to the end of the corridor, where the big double doors to the cathedral stood. This was where Dante had first claimed his sword Alastor, after it impaled him. "Happy days." He muttered to himself, remembering the pain of being dragged through the sword's blade and handle. Trish pushed open the cathedral's doors.

Inside was a large cathedral, with pillars shaped like trees pulsing on either side of the room. The door which led to the path of trials was locked. The evil puddle which had led to the underworld was gone. But, on the stand where Dante had found the pride of lion once, he now saw a briefcase.

That definitely didn't fit in. Dante ran up, and opened it. Inside he found some red orbs and a couple of diary logs:

"_Barder, head of security: That old sage wanted far too many red orbs if you ask me. But, as he did manage to resurrect Mallet Island, I had to let him off. But the carving where he said we'd find Alastor was a door, in fact leading the crummy cathedral room I'm writing in. Jay said he'd take a sample of that murky puddle to experiment on. I agree with him, something about that puddle just sent shivers down my spine… The Boss, Thompson, is calling us back. I'd better go…"_

"_Jay, Scientist: I wonder still where the Alastor sword has gone, and if coming here to find it was a complete waste of time. No, it wasn't a waste of time, because of that puddle! Something in it isn't right… I shall have to run further tests."_

"People were here," Dante said, "After Alastor. God knows why, but they must want it a lot if they bring back a whole Island for it! I wonder where they are now." Dante picked up the briefcase hoping to find more information in it. Big mistake.

The briefcase was on a pressure pad, and as Dante lifted it, Machine turrets smashed their way out of the tree pillars. They were made of a heavily reinforced metal, and were sticky with what looked like resin. Those pillars were more treelike than Dante had thought.

Trish shot away at the turrets, but it did no harm to them. Dante rolled across the floor, nearly being hit by a spray of bullets. Clinton smashed through the wooden covering of the briefcase's stand. He was expecting to only see a small area in here, which would be the inside of the dais; instead he was surprised to be plummeted into a vast rocky chamber with water at the bottom. His fall was cushioned by the water, but he pulled himself out of it quickly, for who knew what was in its depths. Apart from a small skylight above, which was where Clinton had fell in, there was no exit. Except the tunnel Clinton could see under the smooth clear surface of the water. Time to dive…

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Dante ran past the door to the path of trials. The stream of bullets hitting the wall next to him obliterated the hand in the door, like Dante had planned.

"Through here!" Dante yelled, pulling Trish through the door.

Now let's hear this path's history. Dante had only been over this path once with it intact, for on his return trip it was hit by cursed lightning and collapsed, dropping him into a chamber of Sargasso. On his next trips over, bits of the path floated in the air, and it was a crazy stepping stone game to get across. Now, the stepping stones were also gone. Damn.

"One long jump." Dante muttered.

"I'm very good with jumps." Trish said, and leapt over the gap. On the other side, she found a carving where the staff of Hermes was meant to go. She also found a small switch which she guessed was the turret controls. She pulled the lever to 'off', and jumped back.

When Dante and Trish went back into the cathedral, the turrets were limp and dysfunctional. The two went back into the long corridor, for the wood that Clinton had smashed had mysteriously sealed over, and they couldn't find him.

"Shame, he was good with that Glock." Dante had said. They went into the now open doors to the library, and out into the fountain room. Well, Dante got through, but the doors shut in front of Trish.

"Dante! Help!" Trish yelled through the door. Dante heard footsteps, and they weren't the slow clanking of marionettes or the crashing scuttling of Nobodies, they were human footsteps.

"Get her!" One voice yelled.

"Good idea, Barder! Kidnap the first person you see!" Another voice yelled back.

"This is an order." The voice of Barder said. "We can't trust anyone in this place! And she might lead us to Alastor!"

Dante heard lots of thumping, and Trish yelling incoherent things at the attackers. Dante couldn't get through however much he tried. He stood in silence, until the scuffling sounds of Trish's kidnappers were inaudible. Dante looked around. All the doors in this room were locked.

Dante walked over to the fountain. The water looked wrong, it was fizzing green.

Suddenly, all the water in the fountain gushed up like a geyser and formed a humanoid shape. It was a poisoned Naiad.

Dante drew Alastor, and ran around the arena. The acidic green water was lurched at him in every way possible. Dante leapt up and slashed at the Naiad, but it darted away. Phantom the fire spitting spider was tough, and so was Nightmare, but Dante hadn't really got used to a super quick foe. When his blow missed, Dante fell from the air onto the ground below, only to be pummelled with a wave of deadly water. Dante struggled up, and slashed away. He analysed the fight, and got used to the way the Naiad attacked and dodged. He swiped it one heavy blow, and it exploded into a shower of green rain.

"Oh, how I love these enemies that try and kill me." Dante muttered sarcastically, collecting a green orb from the wasted Naiad.


	4. Chapter 3

_Y'know, I really don't need this section for notes at the top, but I just felt like leaving this section for notes at the top. Read on!_

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Taking on a couple of Sin Scissors and Sin Scythes, Dante made it to the bedroom where he had first seen his brother as Nelo Angelo. He looked at himself in the mirror there. This mirror had once led him into the mirror version of this castle. Now the mirror was an ordinary mirror. Dante was frustrated. All the doors out of here were locked, and he was trapped in. The mirror was the final place he checked: but no, this place also led to nowhere. Dante went back outside.

Hey, was that an object where the Death Sentence had once been? He ran over, and collected it; the "Matukhi's Glare". Dante did not have any more luck opening the doors now he had the Glare, so he sat once more in the bedroom. He was feeling drowsy all of a sudden.

Dante locked the bedroom's door to stop anything unpleasant getting in (He was too sleepy to remember the Sins could go through walls), and rested on the bed. He soon fell into a deep slumber.

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Dante realised in his sleep that the drowsiness had came from the Matukhi's Glare. Now he was trapped in a nightmarish dream, running through a cursed forest where all the trees tried to crush him. He tripped into a hole in the forest floor.

The hole led to the main hall of the castle, but the gravity was flipped sideways and everywhere was constantly rippling and warping. A large red blur floated through the air. A face formed in it…

"I am Matukhi!" It yelled. Poisonous red gases exploded from the walls, catching fire and nearly roasting Dante. Dante tripped over. Matukhi vanished, and a wave of fire appeared on the ceiling and roared down to Dante.

"I'll fight fire with fire!" Dante said, equipping the Ifrit gauntlets and punching the wave of fire away.

"You are tough." Matukhi grinned. "But not tough enough."

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Clinton didn't want to go underwater. This was increased by the sudden thought that his Glock wouldn't work down there. He tried climbing up the wall to the skylight, but sealed up and he was too wet to climb anyway. He spotted something shining on the ground near him; a Needle Gun. Clinton was armed, and so he decided to take the plunge.

He swam through the underwater tunnel until he reached a secret door. The door closed behind him, leaving him in his new surroundings. All he had done is learn Blades are no fun underwater and he could get lost if he tried.

He was in a circular corridor. There were holes in the floor, which looked ominous. To his left there was a spike wall with a skeleton impaled on it. As Clinton struggled out of the water, he grabbed onto the skeleton's arm for support.

The corridor was now moving like a conveyer belt towards the spike wall. Clinton ran away from it, but spikes were leaping up from the holes in the floor. Great. A trap.

Clinton struggled away and slowly but surely got out of the trap room via an elevator. It hadn't helped that he was wet. Now he was by a large natural waterfall. There was a stand with a sword in it. Clinton pulled it out…

_Grace, a sword with a blade that draws energy from nearby evil. The more evil a foe is the more powerful Grace is._

A Kyklops smashed through the cliff face behind the waterfall and ran at Clinton. He swung Grace to and fro at the massive earthy spider, and caught it straight in its one big eye. The blinded Kyklops stumbled into the cliff wall heavily, causing loose rocks to fall and destroy it. The two exits were these: one cave, which was locked by one of those door-hands, and the hole the Kyklops had made when it entered. Clinton went through the Kyklops hole.

It directed him to a waterway. Clinton fought some Marionettes and a Death Scissors but eventually managed to find… another waterway. He seemed to be going around in circles. _(These are the waterways that Dante saw in this place, except there are more waterways opened up now.) _Clinton sat down in a large circular chamber after an hour's getting lost. What now? Three Beezelbubs hovered nearby.

Clinton was about ready to give up and let the bugs eat him, but he instead raised his Glock and shot down two of the pitiful creatures. The other one got close enough for a direct hit from Grace.

When the last Beezelbub fell, a hatch opened in the wall. Clinton clambered through it. He had to crawl in the small space. The tiles changed to grit and rock.

Eventually, the tunnel collapsed under Clinton, and he was dropped on one side of a hand-barrier. He could faintly see through. On the other side was the waterfall where he had collected Grace. Bah! All that time spent on practically nothing. At least he could keep moving. There were red orb doors already opened, like someone had been here. Dante seemed to know this Island, maybe it was him.

Clinton was still not sure on his path, but he found some sort of coliseum. Like the entire Island it was a ruined version of its former self. Huge webs were everywhere, and Baby Phantoms were scuttling all over the ground. Several sleeping Kyklops were in the webs. Clinton stepped on one of the Baby Phantoms and it squeaked. One of the Kyklops woke up. It called to another, and another. Soon all six Kyklops were awake. But that wasn't it… A massive shape pulled itself from the ground, fire all over its hairy body and a scorpion tail lashing out as if it was feeling the air.

Phantom glared his beady eyes at Clinton. "Well, well. Think you can come in here and step on my young?"

Clinton was aware that the six Kyklops were behind him. "The heel of my 400 red orb shoes much appreciated it." Clinton said. On the upper floor he could see a statue of time. Clinton rolled sideways and into the tornado that teleports you to the top floor. He ran to the statue of time. "That's worth my money." Clinton said, buying a skill under the category 'Grace'.

He jumped back to the ground floor, the Kyklops behind him and Phantom in front. He used his new skill, Gracious Spin.

Clinton stabbed his sword into the ground, and holding the swords handle, swung himself in a wide circle at the spiders. Grace's energy channelled through him, and two of the Kyklops who had got a little too close were knocked flying. Clinton retrieved Grace and slashed at the other Kyklops. Three more fell, but he had to leave the last one because Phantom was attacking him. Clinton used the wall to propel himself into the air. While being flung over Phantom, he got in several lucky shots on his back with the Glock. Phantom yelled, his health decreased by 25%. Clinton landed on the other Kyklops and stabbed it in the back. It collapsed with a pathetic whine. Now the distractions were out of the way, Clinton could fight Phantom properly.


	5. Chapter 4

_I'm a bit worried about the fact my chapters are tiny. No really, compared to some story's chapters they are tiny. Do you think the chapters are too small?_

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Dante smashed and pummelled the floating fiery skull called Matukhi with Ifrit. The jet which was on the floor of the room was now on the wall because the gravity rotation. Dante struggled through the warping atmosphere onto its side. He jumped from there onto the side of the knight statue. He equipped the shotgun and blasted away at the assailing adversary.

"Argh!" Matukhi yelled as he vanished into nothing.

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A Fiery shockwave erupted from Dante, smashing the mirror in the bedroom and blowing the door off its hinges. Dante woke up. He was in the bedroom where he had foolishly fallen under the spell of the Matukhi's Glare. There was a secret passage behind the broken mirror.

Dante walked down it quietly with Ebony and Ivory in his hands, getting covered in grit and mould and cobwebs. Dante had to stumble his way through the corridor in pitch blackness, for he had forgotten his luminite. When at last the bright light of the next hall came it was a shock to Dante's eyes which had been trying to adjust to the darkness.

He was in the big hall where he had first talked to Mundus. Plenty of light was let in through the large windows and the tiling was grand. Although it was a bit more wrecked than it was Dante's last visit, he recognised the place.

A large helicopter was parked in the place where Mundus had once sat. Turrets and forcefield walls were put in place. Humans were moving around by the helicopter, nine in total.

Six were soldiers; one was in a purple suit; one must have been the head of security, Barder; the other was a scientist, must have been Jay from the diary logs in the cathedral.

"Thompson, she won't talk." Barder said to the guy in the purple suit.

"Bring the brat out." Thompson said. Barder clicked his fingers, and two of the soldiers dragged a chained up Trish from the helicopter. They slung her on the floor at Thompson's feet. She was bruised and scarred, like they had tortured her to try and make her talk.

"Do you know about Alastor?" Thompson asked sweetly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Trish replied.

"You're a terrible liar." Thompson said. "Alastor. Information. NOW!"

"I'm not going to tell you anything." Trish said through gritted teeth.

"ALASTOR THE SWORD!" Thompson yelled, the sound echoing off the chamber's high walls.

"Go to hell." Trish replied.

Thompson sighed. "Looks like we'll just have to start cutting your limbs off in the helicopter's propellers until you comply."

Barder hoisted Trish up, and dragged her towards a ladder on the side of the helicopter. Dante, remembering Barder's harsh words, had no doubts they would carry out the threat. Dante felt power surging through him like when he had pursued Mundus in this very same hall; dark wings forced their way from his back and evil glare glowed in his eyes. Dante swooped down and grabbed two of the soldiers and threw them out of the window. It was a long fall to the ocean below.

Dante tore the turrets to pieces with a spray of meteors, and then did a barrel roll against the other four soldiers, knocking them our cold.

Jay went running and hid in the helicopter. Thompson followed.

While Dante fought Barder, This is what happened in the helicopter.

"If he can be a demon, so can I." Thompson said.

"But who knows what it could do to you!" Jay argued.

"Just hand me the dark water." Thompson.

Jay, hands shaking, passed over the test vial filled with water from the puddle in the cathedral. Thompson swallowed it in one. "What have I done..." Jay said faintly, preferring to risk Dante than Thompson and legging it.

Thompson's flesh rippled and became green and slimy, plates of armour appeared on his surface; he was a humanoid Nightmare _(no literally, he looks like a human shaped version of the boss Nightmare)_.

Barder rolled and ducked Dante's attacks. Dante was preparing to finish him off when Thompson-Nightmare came from the helicopter. Barder, still with a grenade gun, scuttled through one of the big double doors that lead to somewhere within the underworld.

Thompson-Nightmare cart-wheeled past Dante's attacks. He had the power of Nightmare but the agility of an acrobat. Damn.

Jay saw Barder leaving the hall and followed him. "Hang on." Barder said. He ran back and grabbed Trish.

"After all this you're still thinking of the Alastor ritual?!" Jay exclaimed.

"That," Barder replied, "And I wouldn't leave a chained up civilian in a war zone. I'm only mean because it's what that freak show paid me for!" And with that, Trish, Barder and Jay left the hall.

Dante skidded through the air, trying to avoid the attacks Nightmare used to use: now the attacks were quicker and stronger. Dante grabbed a stray blue orb fragment up on the rafters, and decided to hide on its platform and think.

The devil trigger rush of energy faded, and Dante was back to his normal self. And he was exhausted. And there was a foe nearly as strong as Mundus below him somewhere.

Somewhere below Dante, the power craved Thompson-Nightmare looked around. It couldn't see Dante, so it assumed in its bombardment of lasers it had killed him. Thompson-Nightmare left the room through the door which led to the living cave.

A minute later, Dante jumped down. Being part devil he couldn't die from large drops. He crept over to the door that led to the living cave.

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Clinton yelled a battle cry as he hit Phantom straight into his bulblike back.

"NO! I will be back to kill you, and Dante, and everyone!" Phantom yelled. He pulled himself through a portal in the ground, presumably leading to the underworld.

"Oh dear." Clinton said as he realised Grace was firmly wedged into the fleeing spider. Clinton and his sword were dragged with Phantom into the underworld.

Fire surrounded him. Skeletons on all shaped and sizes were hung on the wall, with candles in their skulls. Phantom scurried off down the corridor. Clinton pulled Grace free, and tumbled off of the spider's back.

"Now where do I go?" Clinton said, realising for the fourth or so time that day he was lost. Well, being lost in a cold damp waterway wasn't nice, but compared to being lost in hell…

Clinton heard footsteps ahead, coming closer. He edged forwards to see what it was…

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"So let's get this straight." Trish said. "Thompson wanted to go here so he could get Alastor, and by igniting the sword with this Matuthingy's Glare he would be almost unstoppable?"

"That's about it." Barder said. He had unchained Trish and formed a truce. "Wait, someone's ahead."

A shadow went past the corner. Who it belonged to was… Clinton?!?

"Clinton?!?" Trish said. "How the hell did you end up in, well, hell?!?"

"Doesn't matter. Long story." Clinton said. You could still guess he was a rich man, but his once dashing hair was a straggled mess, and his once smart suit was torn and burnt. He looked wiser, like a soldier once they have been to war, and he had a new sword in his hands with a purple blade, Grace. Clinton looked around. "Where's Dante?"


	6. Chapter 5

_Here we go, must be nearing the end of the story now…_

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In answer to Clinton's question at the end of the last chapter, Dante was closely following Thompson-Nightmare. Nobodies roared and attacked the Nightmare, but he just grabbed there shoulders, said something to them in their growl-like language, and the Nobodies slunk off whimpering. Dante had too keep a fair distance from Thomson as he now had enhanced senses, like infallible hearing.

Thompson-Nightmare went round a sharp bend, and when Dante rounded the corner He saw a 2-way junction. "Eeney Meeney Miny Mo." Dante said, picking the left path. Soon he caught up with Thompson-Nightmare in a large chamber. Dante realised this was the room where he had slain the original Nightmare.

Thompson growled some demon words and a pedestal with a slot in the top came up. "I have the pedestal of Alastor." Thompson gargled. "Now I need the sword." He turned around and looked directly at Dante. "I believe you have it?"

"Oh, and I thought I was following you so quietly." Dante said.

"You'll need to learn Eeney Meeney Miny Mo quieter than that." Thompson grinned, and leapt at Dante.

Dante rolled to one side, and equipped Ifrit. He didn't want to use Alastor in case Thompson-Nightmare yanked it out of his hands.

Dante smashed the fiery fists across the Nightmare, to little damage. "Don't you remember the old Nightmare?" Thompson gargled. "You had to hit the orb. Now, I'm too sensible to let you at mine." Thompson smashed his palm into Dante's face, causing Dante to reel backwards. Dante dragged himself to his feet, a trickle of blood coming from his mouth.

"Try harder next time." Dante said. He grabbed the Alastor pedestal and legged it out the way they had entered. Thompson-Nightmare followed closely.

Dante didn't know what he was doing, where he was going. He was surrounded by Nobodies in the room with the giant heart and the doors leading to the helicopter room. Dante had to stop and fight the Nobodies to unlock the ahead door. He made short work of them, but Thompson had caught up.

Dante only had to get up to that door, and maybe he could fly off in the helicopter some distance and drop the pedestal into the sea, that would foil Thompson's plans…

Dante tripped up on the heart. The pedestal fell to the ground below. Thompson-Nightmare picked Dante up and beat the hell out of him, while claiming the sword.

Thompson clicked the Alastor sword into the pedestal.

"The power!" He yelled, a grey light consuming him. He was an all new form. His face was a skull; he had large spike-like bones coming from his dark robes; the Staff of Judgement was in his bony hand; he was the Judge of Death. The real Judge of Death. And his judgement was Dante's Death…

The Judge slowly walked over to the limp form of Dante. "I am the very death of all, the most evil form in all of existence…"

His speech was cut short by another voice. "The more evil they are, the harder they fall!" And with that, Clinton shoved Grace into the Judge's skeletal structure.

The transformation was gruesome as the Nightmare slime folded over the Judge's structure and melted away to show Thompson's body, which shattered into fragments of energy. The Alastor pedestal rolled off the giant heart to the bottom of the cave, while the Alastor sword landed straight in the heart.

Clinton was accompanied by Trish, Barder and Jay. "We need to get back to the helicopter." Barder said.

"Hang on…" Dante said. "My head… Ah, no hurry I suppose." The cave creaked. The walls rippled and wrinkled, and the chamber seemed to be getting smaller. "OK, hurry." Dante decided.

"Alastor stabbed the heart, and the cave is dying!" Clinton said as He and Barder helped Dante get to the big double doors to the bright hall. Trish followed them closely.

Jay looked back at the Alastor sword. "That could really be interesting for some experiments." He said. So Jay ran back onto the bleeding heart and tried to pull the sword free, but the more he tried to pull out the sword the more the heart sucked it in. The heart completely enveloped the sword and as Jay was holding onto it, his arm was stuck in up to the elbow. "HELP!" He shouted, but he was trapped as the cave closed around him.

Clinton leapt into the helicopters driving seat and Trish, Barder and an unconscious Dante sat in the back. Three of the four soldiers Dante had earlier knocked out cold had come round, and had been practically rammed into the helicopter's storage compartment. They took off as Mallet Island sunk for the second time.

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Barder and the soldiers were dropped off at a military establishment. Clinton was dropped off as he requested in Russia.

Trish and Dante went back to Devils Never Cry. "Oh god." Dante said, freezing on the spot as he entered the shop. They had left for Mallet Island without fixing the windows, and some thieves had ransacked the place. The till was gone, the laptop was gone, most of Dante's decorative demon skulls were gone… In fact, the desk and the floorboards were gone. "Typical." Trish sighed.

"Ah." Dante said. "I don't even have Alastor!"

"I just had a thought." Trish said. "The Marionettes must have come back and attacked on their own free will."

"What are you thinking?" Dante asked. "A book called _The Secret Lives of the Marionettes_?"

-----

A month later, the shop was back to normal. Trish was writing page 48 of her new comedy book _The Secret Lives of the Marionettes_, and Dante was reading the newspaper. "Trish, look at this." Dante said. He pointed out an article with Clinton on the picture.

_**Shoot 'Em Up**_

_The annual Shoot 'Em up shooting competition held in Russia was won this year by Sir Clinton Westford. He has entered the competition every time it has happened over the 12 years it had been running, but this was his 1__st__ gold. We asked him what he thought about his luck, and stated this:_

"I got in a bit of extra practice."

-----

_Well, that's all from Devil May Have Vengeance! Hope you enjoyed it!_


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